I am a student at OSU with Central Benefits insurance. I graduate in June. Even though the school told me on several occasions that I could keep my insurance for three more quarters, I have now been told that they are switching insurance companies, and I can only have it one more quarter. Will my husband's insurance take me on if I am already pregnant? Are they allowed to turn me down for coverage?

Jennifer

Good news, Jennifer. You're covered! The best thing to do, which you are doing now, is to make sure that you are and will be covered for your pregnancy and all other medical issues before your coverage terminates. Far too many people wait until their coverage ends before they worry about what to do next. In fact, most sad stories that come my way occur because people waited too long to obtain insurance coverage.

If you have access to your husband's group insurance plan, the fact that you are in your last three months of your current coverage is no detriment to you at all. The law says two things about people in your situation. First, you only have to satisfy a 12-month pre-existing condition exclusion period once, as long as you have been covered for at least 12 months without a break in coverage of more than 62 days. So if you have maintained your college coverage for 12 months or more and your husband then adds you to his group plan, your pre-existing conditions will be covered from the first day. Second, federal law excludes pregnancy from the definition of a pre-existing condition. So if your husband's plan includes maternity coverage, your pregnancy will be covered.

Your pregnancy brings up the issue of continuity of care. If you are pregnant now, you should be receiving prenatal care from an obstetrician or family practice physician. Your current insurance and your husband's plan may not include the same panel of doctors and hospitals. This means that when you join your husband's plan, you may have to switch doctors. The middle of a pregnancy is probably not the most comfortable time to change doctors. With this in mind, it may be to your advantage (and your baby's health) to join your husband's plan now. This will give you time to establish a relationship with a new doctor and become familiar with the hospital where you will deliver your baby. Having been through this three times as a father, I cannot speak enough about the importance of a good relationship with the doctor.

If your husband's insurance is not an employer-sponsored plan, you can still be covered for your pregnancy and any pre-existing conditions with a couple of provisions. First, his coverage must include maternity coverage. Second, you must have had 18 months of previous coverage. If this is the case, call your husband's insurance company for full details of joining his coverage. There may be a different means of providing insurance for people in your situation in your state, and your state's insurance department can tell you how to go about getting insurance.

Whatever the case, you should resolve this issue before your college coverage runs out at the end of the quarter.